Since I really enjoyed Teen Titans: Beast Boy, I decided to give Teen Titans: Raven (Teen Titans #1) by Kami Garcia and Gabriel Picolo a chance. While I enjoyed the art style, the main storyline was a little underwhelming. Raven was one of my favorite characters from Teen Titans so I was really excited to see what was going to happen here. While this isn't bad, it was up to par for what I was expecting for one of my favorite characters. Regardless, I'm still looking forward to what's coming in the future for Teen Titans: Beast Boy Loves Raven.
My review is also on Goodreads.
I didn't really have expectations for Green Rider (Green Rider #1) by Kristen Britain, but that was a lot of fun. Britain's brand of YA fantasy adventure was right up my alley. Karigan was such a great lead character and the world-building really drew me in. At times, it was a bit all over the place on the whole, but I couldn't resist it. If only I had the chance to read this when I was younger. I'll definitely be back for the sequels.
My review is also on Goodreads.
House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland is easily one of my favorite releases of 2021, and one of my favorite reads of 2021 as well. It's an unsettling and flat out creepy fairytale. If you like your fairytales on the twisted, dark, and Grimm side and the authors Melissa Albert, Holly Black, and Seanan McGuire, I have a feeling you'll love this too. I can't wait to read more from Krystal Sutherland in the future.
My review is also on Goodreads.
Laura by Vera Caspary is the 1943 novel that inspired the 1944 movie Laura. This is one of those few cases where I prefer the film adaptation to the original novel. The film's cast really make the movie work.
My review is also on Goodreads.
I can honestly say that I don't get the hype with Fruits Basket, Vol. 1 by Natsuki Takaya. I remember back in the old days when I was in high school I was told over and over again that I needed to read this series, but for whatever reason that never happened. Now that I've read it, I felt like I was missing something massive about this story and the characters. I've heard a lot of great things about it and have read a lot of great reviews, but I guess I'm with the minority on this one. Maybe I should try the anime?
My review is also on Goodreads.
I've really enjoyed what I've read from Edgar Cantero, but The Supernatural Enhancements by Edgar Cantero never quite worked for me as much as I wanted it to. I've seen a lot of great reviews for it and I've heard it compared to Night Film by Marisha Pessl which is one of my favorites, so this was disappointing. The plot and the format in this case were a bit tricky to follow over the course of the novel. I definitely preferred the idea of this one to the final product.
My review is also on Goodreads.
If you're looking for a quirky MG that's like a combination of The School for Good and Evil meets A Series of Unfortunate Events, you might want to try School of Fear (School of Fear #1) by Gitty Daneshvari. It doesn't quite have what those two have but it comes pretty close to replicating their respective styles.. I especially appreciated the phobia list and definitions at the beginning of each chapter.
My review is also on Goodreads.
I'm kind of pleasantly surprised by how much I ended up actually liking this 1920s set prequel novel, Indiana Jones and the Peril at Delphi (Indiana Jones: Prequels #1) by Rob MacGregor. Usually movie tie-in books or what have you can be hit and miss, but this one was pretty cool. I've never seen the Indiana Jones film prequels, so I have no idea how they compare. Either way, I'm looking forward to reading the rest of these prequels.
My review is also on Goodreads.
Midnight Brunch (Casa Dracula #2) by Marta Acosta just wasn't working for me. It sounded like it could be fun even though it's the second book in a series, but this reminded me too much of another series. I didn't know what to expect from the voice of the story, but for me it was trying too hard to be funny. Maybe if I was already familiar with the series and had already read book one I would feel differently, but it lost me pretty early on.
My review is also on Goodreads.
See my four star review for A Longer Fall (Gunnie Rose #2) by Charlaine Harris above.
DNF'd @ pg. 60
Dead Certainties: Unwarranted Speculations by Simon Schama just wasn't for me. I had a really difficult time getting into this and I decided to move on to other hopefully greater things.
My review is also on Goodreads.
Congratulations if you've made it this far! Did you take part in either of these readathon challenges? Have you read any of these books? As always, thanks for visiting and perhaps even commenting down below!
Wow, you read a lot! You've definitely made me want to read House of Hollow, and I'd like to try the Kevin J. Anderson series too😁
ReplyDeleteI bet you'd get a kick out of them, especially Kevin J. Anderson. :)
DeleteSo many things to talk about here! First of all, hands-down agreed on Eon. It's a fantastic book, and your review reminded me that I should go re-read it. It has a sequel too (Eona), which is not as good as Book 1 but still pretty great.
ReplyDeleteRe Fruits Basket, I think the hype is more on the anime, which can be quite moving in some scenes. The manga... agree with your thoughts there!
Green Rider and Murder of Crows are pretty solid too, though I did feel that the follow-ons were weaker. But thanks to you, I found a new one to try, Raven Lady -- looks good!
I actually have a copy of Eona and I'm really looking forward to it.
DeleteGood to know about Fruits Basket - I'll have to get to the anime.
I hope you enjoy Raven Lady, Lex!